All Forum Posts by: Kimberly T.

Oh, interesting, I figured there had to be a reason!  Hmm, well, with how low rates are right now, it might be worth looking into to see if you could go conventional now and lock in a low rate.  If I were you, I'd check to see if any triplexes have sold in the past year, or ask a mortgage broker if they can get you a fixed loan now.  Some mortgage brokers have access to quite a variety of lenders, all with different requirements.  Things have changed in the last 5 years, so you might have more options now.  Good luck!

Is there a reason you have a commercial loan on a triplex?  We own a triplex and 3 fourplexes and have conventional loans on all of them.  We bought a fourplex a couple months ago in CO and got a 30 year fixed loan with a 4.875% rate.

Hmm, I'm trying to remember what happened for us. When we bought our house, it had a green pool, and I think they just had to have it emptied before we closed escrow on it. It was a REO. This was back in 2008 and our lender was Chase, so who knows if things are different now. Can't you just ask your lender?

Ok, so I just learned something.  I just googled 'hud occupancy per bedroom' to see what would come up, and I found an article that was talking about it.  But, it mentioned that some states have specific laws about occupancy:

"Some states such as California have laws that state that “2 persons plus one” is the occupancy standard that should be used."

http://petriestocking.com/blog/2013/06/24/occupanc...

Assuming this info is still current and accurate, it sounds like in CA, we have to go with the 2/bedroom + 1.  So I will amend my previous posts here to state that CA rentals likely should follow the 2+1 rule.  Not sure if the CA law specifically addresses studios and/or square footage, so that might be worth looking into.

Not legal advice.

For the purposes of number of occupants, minors count as occupants, so if you are limiting occupancy to 2 per bedroom (counting studio as a 1 bedroom), then you can deny a couple who has 1 or more kids.  So, you can allow 2 adults, or an adult with a minor, and either of those situations would meet the 2 occupant limit.  You might choose to rent to 2 minors, but I wouldn't recommend it. ;)

Not legal advice.

I believe @Marcus Curtis  is right on all he stated.

From what I have read, Section 8 has been argued in court and the court determined that Section 8 money is not "income" so landlords are allowed to not accept it.  We don't accept Section 8 for our CA units.  My understanding is that it's a voluntary program and landlords are not required to accept it.  Here's an article about a case I read about regarding Section 8 not having to be accepted:

http://realtytimes.com/todaysheadlines1/item/2224-...

Specifically, here are the most pertinent paragraphs relating to Section 8 not being income:

The allegation that the Fair Employment and Housing Act was violated centered on the prohibition against housing discrimination on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, source of income, or disability of that person." (Emphasis added.)

The appellate court ruled that the landlord

We self manage our local triplex, so in general, yes I would recommend it (we both work full time as well).  You need to know what you're doing, so research a lot about your state and local landlord tenant laws, fair housing laws (discrimination), proper forms, etc.  BP is a great resource for a lot of that, and look to see if Texas has a landlord association with good info as well.  Self managing will also help you really learn the ropes and help you establish your own standards (tenant screening, what class of neighborhood to buy in, how much various expenses should cost, etc.), which will help if you decide to use a PM in the future so you know how you want them to run it.

We went straight into MF ourselves (well, except our house we live in, which we bought before anything else). Bought a local triplex first, and since then we've bought two 4plexes in AZ and one in CO. ROI is generally better than on a SFR, so it definitely makes sense.

If you don't own your current home, this would be a great opportunity to buy a MF and live in one unit and rent the other(s), so you can get in with a very small down payment.

Doesn't matter if they're pulling in seven figures if they're not using it to pay their bills on time.  They sound terrible to me, personally.  Just my opinion.

Contractors generally go to HD more than Lowes, so that's why they congregate there (if you were wondering).

We've never hired them directly ourselves, but we've had contractors do work on our properties before and we don't ask where they get their workers from.  We just verify that the contractor has all the licensing/insurance/etc. that he should, and then we're off the hook if one of his laborers gets hurt at our place.